What it is to be a Shinobi
by Starforth
Summary: Neji has a mission and a Shinobi must complete the task set. No exceptions.


The crimson liquid posed a striking contrast to his pale skin. He lowered his kunai – that too was stained.

Neji stood at the massacre he had created. He cast a look of pure apathy over what once was a quaint collection of huts. Each was built roughly: using only stones, earth and wood. Each housed a member of a rogue ninja clan, who were a threat to the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Rock villages. Each was littered with the corpses. Each was decorated with the useless red water that once coursed through their veins. Blood dripped into a pool, beating a slow, melancholy rhythm.

The Leaf ninja raised a finger to his headband. Closing his cold lavender eyes, he traced the insignia. _Breathe in. _He absorbed his surroundings, coming to grips with reality. _Breathe out. _Lost in his own damned thoughts, he remembered his training. _A ninja must not show emotion._

No emotion. That was right. Nobody could even believe that Neji - Hyuuga prodigy, Cadet Branch member – could even possess emotion. It was always beaten into him. At the academy, sitting in class, learning the twenty fifth Shinobi law. No emotion. At home, watching his father contort on the varnished floor for allowing an angry sneer cross his face. No emotion. Never show emotion.

Emotions interfere with missions. Any other person who did not undergo his strict training would hesitate with the massacre. Hesitating leads to a disadvantage. Disadvantages lead to failure. Failure _is_ death.

Neji stroked the blade of his kunai with his thumb. It slid over the blood. Hastily, he stopped. A mission is a mission: to eradicate everyone in a rogue village in the Land of Earth. Everyone.

A small child stepped out of a ruined house.

_Everyone. _

Neji stared at her. She was no older than the age of six. Her blonde hair was tainted with streaks of scarlet blood. Pale skin was smudged by dirt and her little blue dress soiled by the remnants of the broken building. Tears streamed silently down her petite face, etching clean tracks down her cheeks.

The little girl gazed up into the expressionless eyes of the Hyuga. _Everyone?_ He brushed the flat of the kunai again, hiding it behind his back. Positioning it carefully, he gripped it tightly.

'Where did mummy go, mister?'

Neji's brow furrowed. 'Your mother is gone,' he replied impassively, glancing away as if to shield him from the act he was committed to do.

'Oh… Gone?' she choked. She allowed herself a dry sob, then burst into a fresh set of tears, running forward and gripping the material of Neji's trouser leg. Her loud cries echoed dully in the emptiness which was once her home. The Hyuga scowled and pushed her away. Shocked, she sniveled and hiccoughed.

Neji screwed up his eyes. His teeth ground together viciously; thumb forever caressing the blooded blade.

'When is she coming back?'

_What?_ Did this child not realize she was in the presence of the very person who killed her entire clan? Could she not see the corpses? The blood? The _onslaught?_

Neji stopped stroking the blade. He dropped to one knee, opening his arms as an offer to the girl. _A ninja must show no emotion. _She stumbled into the gratefully, wrapping her small arms around his waist, not long enough to reach right the way around. _A mission is a mission._ Neji tightened his grasp on the kunai handle. The blood flashed menacingly. The blade angled.

And rested on her shoulder. Neji's arms curled around her delicate frame. _How could anyone dream of harming such a fragile creature?_ He picked her up - cradling her in his arms - putting the kunai away in his bag. The girl coughed, wiping the last of her tears.

Neji turned his back on the bloodshed, taking the child, whispering words of comfort. No emotion? That was impossible. Even for the hearts of cold, bitter steel.

Neji was a Shinobi. But that didn't make him inhuman.

**My first Dark Fic. **

**I am on hands and knees here: Please critisize! Even if it is to nit pic, I don't care! Tell me what I can improve!**


End file.
